Government Site Exposes U.S. IT Spending

The U.S. government spends over $70 billion a year on IT projects, but how much of that money is wasted thanks to inefficient processes, lackluster management, or antiquated ideas?

The Obama administration is looking to shine a light on its IT investments with a new Web site that will provide detailed information about how federal funds are allocated, where they are spent, and whether the projects are living up to their expectations.

"One of the biggest challenges we see today ... is how we make sure that the investments we're making in IT actually produce the dividends that were promised," Vivek Kundra, the nation's chief information agency, said during Tuesdays's Personal Democracy Forum in Manhattan.

Kundra was on hand to unveil the IT Dashboard, a Web site that will let users drill down on IT spending for 27 agencies across the board - from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.

Last year, over $30 billion in IT projects were wasted, Kundra said, but the government provided little data beyond a single list of the projects that were in trouble.

"Thirty billion dollars of taxpayer money - that's unacceptable," he said. "What the Obama administration is committed to is laying a new foundation when it comes to transparency, accountability and responsibility - especially when you look at how we manage IT investments."

The site provides a "performance dashboard" for all agencies, with a pie chart that provides details on the percentage of projects that are normal, that need attention, or that have significant concerns. That data is then broken down by whether the troubles are finance-related, off schedule, or simply have not yet been evaluated.








The Department of Defense, for example, is spending $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2009 on 62 major IT projects. Of those 62 projects, 79 percent are rated as normal and 16 percent need attention. About 5 percent have significant concerns, including a $236 million Air Force combat support system, and a $126 million Defense agencies project intended to make the department more net-centric.

Want to share the data you've found on IT Dashboard? Each agency breakdown features a "share" button that includes a URL, embed code, and the ability to share via Facebook, Twitter, or delicious. The data can also be added to an RSS feed.

"It's not enough to just roll up information and make it available in an abstract fashion," Kundra said. "We need to be able to go down to the deepest level in terms of data and information performance."

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.